Well I hope I can keep this from being too boring, as the trip itself was unbelievable. Pictures will follow soon, it will take me time to pick the best out and scan them.

On September 3, our journey started. We flew to New York City, then on to Johannesburg, South Africa. Only 20 hours in the air!

I cannot say too little about Johannesburg, It is just another city. However,the airport had numerous military (armed with automatic weapons) and police personnel around. It seems that there was a strike taking place and there was this "little" extra security. We spent our first night at a Holiday Inn in Sandton, a suburb of Johannesburg. The highlight of our first African night, was spent in the mall there, supposedly the largest in Africa. To our embarrassment, we actually got lost in it, as it encompassed several buildings and two blocks. We ended up out in the street trying to make our way back to the hotel (not a good idea at night).

We were then driven back to the airport the following morning and flew to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. I have to say ALL of our transfers were ON TIME.

We never had to wait through our entire trip. We decided to stay at the Victoria Falls Hotel. This is a beautiful, renovated old (early 1900's) hotel that truly reminds you of the colonial nature of Zimbabwe, formally Rhodesia. Almost immediately after we arrived, we were picked up for a nice cruise down the Zambezi River. This was a first taste of seeing African wildlife. Afterwards, we went to the "Jungle Junction" restaurant at the hotel. We got to eat ostrich and crocodile along with more mainstream type foods. I thought the crocodile tasted OK, but Kathi found it to be too "fishy".

The following morning we were driven to Chobe National Park in Botswana. We began our drive in a nice air conditioned van, and at the border, had to switch to an open-aired Landrover. The entire trip lasted about 2 hours; the roads are well maintained and we felt very safe. There was the occasional jaywalking elephant but they seemed to be exempt from traffic safety laws.

On our approach to Chobe, the road changed from paved to dirt. At this point, we began to see wildlife. In all of the places we traveled, we did not see the tremendous number of animals that we saw in Chobe.

The Chobe Game Lodge was nice and comfortable. We were there 3 nights. During our stay, we traveled, by boat 3 times up and down the Chobe River. We canoed

(our guide provided all of the labor) once for a couple of hours. And every morning and evening we drove through the park. For those who like to sleep in, don't bother to take this trip. In ALL of the places we traveled, the wakeup knocks were typically between 5:30 and 6:00 AM. Yes, I said knocks. There were no phones!

Game viewing in Chobe was extraordinary. We saw hundreds of elephants at a time. At no other park, did we see herds with more than 100 elephants. Along with the elephants, there were cape buffalo, hippos, crocodiles, water bucks, gazelles, sable, kudus, lions, giraffes, jackals and many other animals and birds. By far, the elephants, are the most destructive element in the park. There is an estimated 80,000 elephants there. Between their eating and rubbing against trees, there were swaths of dead trees. There is talk about culling the herds there and I can see why.

At all of the parks, we traveled on the road in Landrovers. I have gained a new respect for the vehicle. We were told that the animals in the parks do not see people in the car as individuals, only the vehicle. Therefore, they paid little or no attention to us as we drove around. In Chobe, we also traveled by small boat on the Chobe River. Again, nothing paid much attention to us, other than the one hippo that charged the boat twice as we floated by him. A charging hippo (no Mastercard in sight) is definitely something to be reckoned with. We were told that more people were killed by hippos in Africa, about 300 per year, than any other animal.

Well, after 3 nights in Chobe, we headed back to "civilization" in Victoria Falls. This time we stayed at the Rainbow Hotel. This is NOT the same as the Victoria Falls Hotel. We did take time to see Victoria Falls. While it was certainly beautiful, I wasn't that impressed. The water levels were down, being that this is the dry season. We then went back into town and did some major shopping in "downtown" Victoria Falls, which totals about 15 stores. In all of our travels in Africa, they had the best prices there. We picked up the usual carvings, T-shirts, caps, etc. Back we went to our hotel and we were so exhausted we decided on room service. We ordered 2 filet steaks, chocolate milkshakes (more like chocolate milk), and Kathi wanted cheesecake for desert. Surprisingly, other than the chocolate milk, the meal was fairly good. The total tab including tip, a whopping $10.00. Of note: Mike ate most of the cheesecake! Surprise, surprise.

The following morning, off we went on the Blue Arrow bus, to Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. This was not just another 2 hour bus ride. I have to say the Blue Arrow bus is the nicest bus I have been on. We even had a movie, The American President (uncut).

At the Hwange airport, a small (Cessna 146) charter plane met us. The plane was about an hour late, due to Air Zimbabwe's failure to fly. Chris, the pilot, made numerous extra trips trying to get people to their connections. Flying in those small planes is quite an adventure. The thermals in Africa cause some turbulence. The staff at Makalolo spent a lot of time re-arranging guests’ schedules due to Air Zimbabwe's poor service.

We were flown to Makalolo Plains, about a 15-minute ride by air. (3.5 hours by road!) I think both Kathi and I agree that Makalolo was the most fun. We saw the fewest animals there, but had the best time. The camp was situated seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We slept in large tent cabins with an en suite bathroom. There was generator electricity only for lights. The hot water is solar supplied. The tents were placed on teak platforms with teak walkways between the main eating area and the other tents. Animals were free to roam through the camp during the day and night. At night, we were escorted to our tents by armed rangers and were given Magnalite flashlights (torches). It seems that the lions, elephants, etc. wander through the camp at night frequently. It was not unusual to be awakened by "sounds of the jungle." On our first night at the camp, some elephants broke some water pipes at one of the end tents, and drained the entire camp's water supply!

The following evening, the senior ranger slept on the teak porch waiting for the elephants to return. He had some very large firecrackers that he was going to use to scare them off. However, they didn't return that night.

The staff at Makalolo was outstanding. They truly made us feel like family. We went on morning and evening drives. We also went on a 2-hour walk with 2 armed rangers. We got to see and hear about lots of stuff you miss when driving in a vehicle. We got to know a lot about dung of various animals. At this camp, we added sightings of hyenas, zebras, ostriches, and mongoose to the growing number of animals we had seen.

Sunsets were incredible in Botswana and Zimbabwe. We saw 6 of the most beautiful sunsets you can imagine. The sun turns big and red and doesn't exactly set; it sort of just disappears. Add elephants and hippos into that picture and you can imagine what it must look like.

We found out that guides (rangers) in Zimbabwe must go through a 4 year licensing process. They are also certified hunters. Poaching is a big problem there, and poachers can be shot on sight. There were no rhinos at Makalolo as they have either been poached or safely moved to protected sites. Our guides were incredibly knowledgeable and personable. They always went out their way to explain and show us many aspects of African flora and fauna.

Three days hardly seemed like enough time in Makalolo. But alas, off we went, back to Hwange airport. However, we ran into our biggest scheduling glitch here. It seems that Air Zimbabwe is totally unreliable. For several days, their flights were completely cancelled and when they did fly, they were hours late. We had an 80 minute connection time with our flight back to Victoria Falls then on to Johannesburg. Because we didn't trust Air Zim (as it’s fondly called back there), we took a private van back to Victoria Falls to make sure we made the connection. While it didn't cost that much extra, it cut short our final game drive and it was quite annoying. Also, the Victoria Falls Airport is definitely a third world airport (AKA "a dump").

We flew back to Johannesburg and stayed at another fine Holiday Inn, this time

at the airport. Again, there is nothing to say about this stay, other than we had a TV, the food was OK and the air conditioning worked (noisily).

The following morning we flew from Johannesburg to Skukuza, South Africa. We were met there and took another charter (much nicer, but still small plane) to Londolozi Game Reserve. Of all of the places we stayed, this was the most luxurious. The rooms were nice, had tub, shower, electricity, and remote control air conditioning. The staff here was also quite accommodating. The lodges in Botswana and Zimbabwe were quite conscious about water and energy conservation. Not so at Londolozi…the laundry service (if you needed it done), was done by washing machines and dryers and Kathi was constantly turning out all the lights left on during the day by the staff.

Londolozi is known for their leopard sightings. So far we had not seen any leopards, rhinos or cheetahs or male lions. What we got in Londolozi was something very different from any other game park we’d been at. The first difference is that we had a driver AND a spotter. We also found out that there were no rules on staying on the existing roads. The national parks forbid travel off the road, but Londolozi is a private reserve. And the third and final difference was that they could use a high powered spotlight at night to help see/find animals.

The first day we went off looking for a leopard and her cub. We ended up driving through brush, into ravines, around and through obstacles. The Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland is nothing compared to what we went through. The driver and tracker even left the Landrover (great car!) to search tracks for the leopard. Of course, the driver took the rifle, leaving the four of us alone! While we didn't see any leopards that day, it was quite an experience.

We stayed at Londolozi for 3 nights. The guides made sure we were going to see everything we wanted. They kept in close contact with other rangers regarding animal sightings. We had very close encounters with lions, rhinos, leopards, and cheetah. They filled our wish list with all of the animals we wanted to see. We were within 10 feet of the hunting lions and leopards. And we were within 15 feet of rhinos. We also found ourselves in the middle of a cape buffalo herd. Now for those of you who think buffalo are no big deal, think again. They are considered to be one of Africa's Big 5. They are very dangerous. They are the only animal that doesn't mock charge. If they charge at you, they won't stop until they hit you or you get away, even if it means charging into the side of a vehicle. They’re obviously mean, but stupid. So being in the middle of the herd of 200 buffalo is quite interesting.

I shot 18 rolls of film in Londolozi, over 1/2 of the film I took with me. Every time we went out, we found lions or leopards or cheetah to photograph. We also had the thrill of finding one lion pride with 4 cubs approximately 5 months old and a leopard with a 6 month cub. It wasn't difficult to take tons of pictures there. Our departure from Londolozi was quite sad, but we were anxious to get home. We flew back to Skukuza and then back to Johannesburg. The return trip was even longer since we had a 6-hour layover in Johannesburg and also had to land on a small island, Sal Island, off of Africa for refueling.

I hope I kept this brief enough while providing an idea of how wonderful the trip really was. If you have specific questions, please ask, as I know I didn't cover much in detail here.

Thanks for listening,

Mike